In this oral history from 2017, the noted econometrician Takeshi Amemiya, Edward Ames Edmonds Professor of Economics, Emeritus, describes his early life in wartime Japan, his education in economics, and his years on the faculty of the Department of Economics at Stanford University. His wife, Yoshiko Miyaki Amemiya, briefly describes meeting Amemiya in Japan and her experience of life at Stanford.
Amemiya begins by describing how Advanced Econometrics, a comprehensive text that is still in print three decades after its initial publication in 1985, evolved from material he used to teach the subject when he first came to Stanford in 1964. About that time, Amemiya explains, microdata on individual households and companies began to become available. Amemiya developed the statistical methods to analyze such data, and he was the first to write a textbook on the subject.
Elaborating on his early years at Stanford, Amemiya explains that the faculty of the Department of Economics were assigned to different campus buildings, depending on their interests. He says this tended to deter collaboration until the department was consolidated at Encina Hall in the 1970s.
Amemiya jumps ahead to discuss his later interests: sharing his delight in discovering the similarities of Greek and Japanese customs, including the gods they worshipped and their shrines to the dead. In addition, after traveling in China, he began to write poetry in Chinese.
Turning to his childhood, Amemiya says he was only seven at the outbreak of World War II, which found his family in Lima, Peru, where his father worked as an executive for a Japanese shipping line. He describes being caught up in an exchange of Japanese and U.S. citizens living abroad at the outbreak of war. Although he was evacuated from Tokyo during the war, he experienced air raids in the area near Mount Fuji to which he had been sent.
Amemiya describes his time at the International Christian University in Japan, Guilford College in North Carolina, and the American University in Washington, DC and admits to sometimes being distracted from his studies by American novels and golf. At Johns Hopkins University, Amemiya says a connection with econometrist Carl F. Christ set him on a career course that led him to join the faculty of the Stanford Department of Economics. Stanford then was more comfortable and less pressured than today, Amemiya says, offering his criticism of today’s practice of allowing students to evaluate professors, arguing that this encourages overly rehearsed teaching. Instead, he recalls putting new problems on the board and solving them with the students.
Yoshiko Amemiya recounts how she met and married the young professor during a brief period when he left Stanford to teach in Japan. She also shares some of the challenges she experienced adapting to American culture, especially in feeling comfortable with the informality of the English language.
Amemiya concludes by briefly describing the anti-Vietnam War protests at Stanford and recalling some memorable faculty rivalries on the tennis court.

In this oral history from 2017, the noted econometrician Takeshi Amemiya, Edward Ames Edmonds Professor of Economics, Emeritus, describes his early life in wartime Japan, his education in economics, and his years on the faculty of the Department of Economics at Stanford University. His wife, Yoshiko Miyaki Amemiya, briefly describes meeting Amemiya in Japan and her experience of life at Stanford.
Amemiya begins by describing how Advanced Econometrics, a comprehensive text that is still in print three decades after its initial publication in 1985, evolved from material he used to teach the subject when he first came to Stanford in 1964. About that time, Amemiya explains, microdata on individual households and companies began to become available. Amemiya developed the statistical methods to analyze such data, and he was the first to write a textbook on the subject.
Elaborating on his early years at Stanford, Amemiya explains that the faculty of the Department of Economics were assigned to different campus buildings, depending on their interests. He says this tended to deter collaboration until the department was consolidated at Encina Hall in the 1970s.
Amemiya jumps ahead to discuss his later interests: sharing his delight in discovering the similarities of Greek and Japanese customs, including the gods they worshipped and their shrines to the dead. In addition, after traveling in China, he began to write poetry in Chinese.
Turning to his childhood, Amemiya says he was only seven at the outbreak of World War II, which found his family in Lima, Peru, where his father worked as an executive for a Japanese shipping line. He describes being caught up in an exchange of Japanese and U.S. citizens living abroad at the outbreak of war. Although he was evacuated from Tokyo during the war, he experienced air raids in the area near Mount Fuji to which he had been sent.
Amemiya describes his time at the International Christian University in Japan, Guilford College in North Carolina, and the American University in Washington, DC and admits to sometimes being distracted from his studies by American novels and golf. At Johns Hopkins University, Amemiya says a connection with econometrist Carl F. Christ set him on a career course that led him to join the faculty of the Stanford Department of Economics. Stanford then was more comfortable and less pressured than today, Amemiya says, offering his criticism of today’s practice of allowing students to evaluate professors, arguing that this encourages overly rehearsed teaching. Instead, he recalls putting new problems on the board and solving them with the students.
Yoshiko Amemiya recounts how she met and married the young professor during a brief period when he left Stanford to teach in Japan. She also shares some of the challenges she experienced adapting to American culture, especially in feeling comfortable with the informality of the English language.
Amemiya concludes by briefly describing the anti-Vietnam War protests at Stanford and recalling some memorable faculty rivalries on the tennis court.

In advance of the release of the 2017 Copyright Reminder, Mimi Calter will review many of the copyright scenarios that document will address. We’ll talk about library procedures and policies related to copyright, review some basics of copyright law, and talk about working with patrons on copyright issues. Bring your questions!

In advance of the release of the 2017 Copyright Reminder, Mimi Calter will review many of the copyright scenarios that document will address. We’ll talk about library procedures and policies related to copyright, review some basics of copyright law, and talk about working with patrons on copyright issues. Bring your questions!

The LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keeps Stuff Safe) Program provides distributed digital preservation software and services used by hundreds of institutions across tens of networks. Established as an auxiliary of Stanford University Libraries in 1999, the LOCKSS Program originally helped libraries secure post-cancellation access to subscription electronic resources. Its focus has since expanded to preservation of the digital scholarly record more broadly and enabling communities to preserve digital materials that matter to them. As its founders, Vicky Reich and David Rosenthal, are now retired and the LOCKSS Program joins the Digital Library Systems and Services group, the LOCKSS Program is poised for major new initiatives. Come to this Concierge session to hear from Nicholas Taylor, Program Manager for LOCKSS and Web Archiving, about the present and future of the LOCKSS Program.

The LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keeps Stuff Safe) Program provides distributed digital preservation software and services used by hundreds of institutions across tens of networks. Established as an auxiliary of Stanford University Libraries in 1999, the LOCKSS Program originally helped libraries secure post-cancellation access to subscription electronic resources. Its focus has since expanded to preservation of the digital scholarly record more broadly and enabling communities to preserve digital materials that matter to them. As its founders, Vicky Reich and David Rosenthal, are now retired and the LOCKSS Program joins the Digital Library Systems and Services group, the LOCKSS Program is poised for major new initiatives. Come to this Concierge session to hear from Nicholas Taylor, Program Manager for LOCKSS and Web Archiving, about the present and future of the LOCKSS Program.

Providing support for qualitative and quantitative data to the Stanford research community involves a lot of parts and pieces. In this session, Vijoy Abraham, Ashley Jester, Kris Kasianovitz, and Alesia Montgomery will discuss the the landscape of quantitative and qualitative social science data here at Stanford.
Each presenter will provide us with a "data story" that exemplifies the complexities of the work they do to manage the life cycle of social science data sets, from acquisition to the researcher. Data covered will be the various flavors of the US Census, the provisioning of the DISQUE DENUNCIA dataset for international policy research, qualitative data, and Corelogic Tax and Deed Public Record Data.

Providing support for qualitative and quantitative data to the Stanford research community involves a lot of parts and pieces. In this session, Vijoy Abraham, Ashley Jester, Kris Kasianovitz, and Alesia Montgomery will discuss the the landscape of quantitative and qualitative social science data here at Stanford.
Each presenter will provide us with a "data story" that exemplifies the complexities of the work they do to manage the life cycle of social science data sets, from acquisition to the researcher. Data covered will be the various flavors of the US Census, the provisioning of the DISQUE DENUNCIA dataset for international policy research, qualitative data, and Corelogic Tax and Deed Public Record Data.

Stanford Libraries’ collection of South Asian materials increased dramatically in the last few years as the focus of the collection expanded to include materials in the regional languages of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, and Sri Lanka.
Join us for a presentation by C. Ryan Perkins, South Asian Studies Librarian, on the peculiar challenges of building a collection of vernacular South Asian materials from scratch. Ryan will discuss his experience finding vendors to supply materials when no vendors seem to exist and finding ways to provide metadata for materials in vernacular languages when Stanford Libraries does not have catalogers for those languages. The presentation will also highlight some of the goals Ryan has for the collection, what strategies he uses for determining, in a region with dozens of languages, which languages should be collected comprehensively and which should be excluded, and how a partnership with Library of Congress enables some of the collection building.

Stanford Libraries’ collection of South Asian materials increased dramatically in the last few years as the focus of the collection expanded to include materials in the regional languages of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, and Sri Lanka.
Join us for a presentation by C. Ryan Perkins, South Asian Studies Librarian, on the peculiar challenges of building a collection of vernacular South Asian materials from scratch. Ryan will discuss his experience finding vendors to supply materials when no vendors seem to exist and finding ways to provide metadata for materials in vernacular languages when Stanford Libraries does not have catalogers for those languages. The presentation will also highlight some of the goals Ryan has for the collection, what strategies he uses for determining, in a region with dozens of languages, which languages should be collected comprehensively and which should be excluded, and how a partnership with Library of Congress enables some of the collection building.

The Center for Interdisciplinary Digital Research (CIDR) is a unique group of technology specialists, software developers, and humanities and social science data and subject librarians who design and develop new digital tools and methods and incorporate technology and information resources to promote scholarship. Meet our team members and learn about our services, workshops and partners, and hear highlights from some of our projects that integrate data visualization, data organization, and data preservation.

The Center for Interdisciplinary Digital Research (CIDR) is a unique group of technology specialists, software developers, and humanities and social science data and subject librarians who design and develop new digital tools and methods and incorporate technology and information resources to promote scholarship. Meet our team members and learn about our services, workshops and partners, and hear highlights from some of our projects that integrate data visualization, data organization, and data preservation.

Digital interview recordings of Japanese Americans relating to immigration to the United States from Japan, internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, and the postwar Japanese American community. Interviews conducted by Kaoru Ueda. Includes images of diaries, newsletters and other textual material.

Digital interview recordings of Japanese Americans relating to immigration to the United States from Japan, internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, and the postwar Japanese American community. Interviews conducted by Kaoru Ueda. Includes images of diaries, newsletters and other textual material.

Students in online courses do not usually receive the contextualized feedback on their learning at the appropriate level of “granularity”. Kajitory is a learning dashboard with an interactive map of course topics. These comprehensive topics help students recognize the course’s structure, as well as track which topics they have mastered and which topics they still need to work on. Students with Kajiotry will learn to take the best next actions to overcome their struggles.

Students in online courses do not usually receive the contextualized feedback on their learning at the appropriate level of “granularity”. Kajitory is a learning dashboard with an interactive map of course topics. These comprehensive topics help students recognize the course’s structure, as well as track which topics they have mastered and which topics they still need to work on. Students with Kajiotry will learn to take the best next actions to overcome their struggles.

Charles H. “Chuck” Baxter, a biology lecturer emeritus at Stanford University’s Hopkins Marine Station in Monterey, talks about his role both as a teacher and as a key participant in several endeavors, including the creation of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, which have had a deep and lasting impact on both the area and the general public’s perception of our oceans.
He begins the interview discussing his background, most notably how a chance invitation to go diving in the Pacific Ocean opened his eyes to the wonders of underwater ecosystems` and caused him to change his major at UCLA from engineering to zoology. From there he traces a path from his graduate work in Ted Bullock’s lab to teaching the undergraduate zoology lab to his recruitment as a lecturer in the Stanford University Department of Biology.
Baxter explains the circumstances that resulted in the transfer of his teaching duties to the Hopkins Marine Station and his relocation to the Monterey area. He recalls fondly the community of faculty, staff, and students at the marine station in the mid 1970s that made it such a special place to work. Baxter discusses his classes and the undergraduate research projects he assisted with, including one that resulted in two undergraduates publishing one of the first papers to show the effects of greenhouse gases on the distributions of ocean communities.
Beyond his academic life at Hopkins, Baxter relates the notable projects he and his colleagues put into motion. He talks about how the Monterey Bay Aquarium came to be, relating key aspects of the aquarium’s construction, including the kelp forest tank, the aviary, and preservation of the beached grey whale skeleton that now hangs in the reception hall. Peppered throughout the interview are anecdotes about David Packard, who along with his wife, Lucille, was a chief funder of the project. He explains the diving and recording technologies that were central to the formation of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) and the media production company Sea Studios Foundation--organizations in which he played an active role. Finally, Baxter recounts the organization and deployment of the Sea of Cortez Expedition and Education Project, which retraced the 1940 journey of John Steinbeck and Ed Ricketts, and how conversations with his fellow passengers led to his involvement in Stanford’s holistic biology course and his current interest in cognitive science research.

Charles H. “Chuck” Baxter, a biology lecturer emeritus at Stanford University’s Hopkins Marine Station in Monterey, talks about his role both as a teacher and as a key participant in several endeavors, including the creation of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, which have had a deep and lasting impact on both the area and the general public’s perception of our oceans.
He begins the interview discussing his background, most notably how a chance invitation to go diving in the Pacific Ocean opened his eyes to the wonders of underwater ecosystems` and caused him to change his major at UCLA from engineering to zoology. From there he traces a path from his graduate work in Ted Bullock’s lab to teaching the undergraduate zoology lab to his recruitment as a lecturer in the Stanford University Department of Biology.
Baxter explains the circumstances that resulted in the transfer of his teaching duties to the Hopkins Marine Station and his relocation to the Monterey area. He recalls fondly the community of faculty, staff, and students at the marine station in the mid 1970s that made it such a special place to work. Baxter discusses his classes and the undergraduate research projects he assisted with, including one that resulted in two undergraduates publishing one of the first papers to show the effects of greenhouse gases on the distributions of ocean communities.
Beyond his academic life at Hopkins, Baxter relates the notable projects he and his colleagues put into motion. He talks about how the Monterey Bay Aquarium came to be, relating key aspects of the aquarium’s construction, including the kelp forest tank, the aviary, and preservation of the beached grey whale skeleton that now hangs in the reception hall. Peppered throughout the interview are anecdotes about David Packard, who along with his wife, Lucille, was a chief funder of the project. He explains the diving and recording technologies that were central to the formation of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) and the media production company Sea Studios Foundation--organizations in which he played an active role. Finally, Baxter recounts the organization and deployment of the Sea of Cortez Expedition and Education Project, which retraced the 1940 journey of John Steinbeck and Ed Ricketts, and how conversations with his fellow passengers led to his involvement in Stanford’s holistic biology course and his current interest in cognitive science research.

Arthur E. Bryson, Jr., a professor emeritus in the Stanford University Department of Aeronautics & Astronautics, discusses his research and teaching career in aeronautical engineering and his contributions to the fields of flight mechanics and automated control.
Bryson begins with a discussion of his childhood in Illinois, recalling impressions of his father’s work as an investment banker in Chicago, his education in the Winnetka Public Schools, and the impact of a high school math teacher on his life path. He describes the beginning of his undergraduate career at Haverford College, which was interrupted by World War II and his participation in the Navy’s V-5 program.
He talks about his eventual training assignment at Iowa State College and describes how he met his future wife, Helen Layton, there. The ensuing years found Bryson stationed at the Alameda Naval Station, working in repair and maintenance, and he describes some of his experiences there. Bryson then speaks about his short stint as a paper manufacturing engineer working for the Container Corporation of America and as an aeronautical engineer at United Aircraft, where he began working with wind tunnels.
In the late 1940s, Bryson migrated to California to pursue a master’s degree in aeronautical engineering with the help of the GI Bill. He describes his advisor, Hans W. Liepmann, and relates how at Liepmann’s invitation, and with the help of a fellowship from Hughes Aircraft, he stayed on at Cal-tech, completing his PhD in 1951.
An important turning point in Bryson’s career was an encounter with Harvard professor Howard Wilson Emmons, who was assigned to be Bryson’s office mate while Emmons was on a short assignment at Hughes. Bryson relates the circumstances that led Emmons to ask him to join the faculty at Harvard as an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering in 1963. He offers a short account of departmental and family life and his research and consulting work while at Harvard, and notes that the increasingly contentious atmosphere surrounding the Vietnam War was one of the factors that led him to accept an invitation to join the Stanford engineering faculty in 1968.
Bryson describes some of the opportunities and challenges of his new role as the chair of the Department of Applied Mechanics, and later the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He comments on his approach to teaching engineering and working with graduate students, recalls his work on Waves in Fluids and some of the other films in the Fluid Mechanics Films series, and relates stories about the anti-Vietnam War protests on campus.
He concludes the interview with comments on the Gravity Probe B project and reflections on recent directions in biomechanical engineering and flight mechanics.

Arthur E. Bryson, Jr., a professor emeritus in the Stanford University Department of Aeronautics & Astronautics, discusses his research and teaching career in aeronautical engineering and his contributions to the fields of flight mechanics and automated control.
Bryson begins with a discussion of his childhood in Illinois, recalling impressions of his father’s work as an investment banker in Chicago, his education in the Winnetka Public Schools, and the impact of a high school math teacher on his life path. He describes the beginning of his undergraduate career at Haverford College, which was interrupted by World War II and his participation in the Navy’s V-5 program.
He talks about his eventual training assignment at Iowa State College and describes how he met his future wife, Helen Layton, there. The ensuing years found Bryson stationed at the Alameda Naval Station, working in repair and maintenance, and he describes some of his experiences there. Bryson then speaks about his short stint as a paper manufacturing engineer working for the Container Corporation of America and as an aeronautical engineer at United Aircraft, where he began working with wind tunnels.
In the late 1940s, Bryson migrated to California to pursue a master’s degree in aeronautical engineering with the help of the GI Bill. He describes his advisor, Hans W. Liepmann, and relates how at Liepmann’s invitation, and with the help of a fellowship from Hughes Aircraft, he stayed on at Cal-tech, completing his PhD in 1951.
An important turning point in Bryson’s career was an encounter with Harvard professor Howard Wilson Emmons, who was assigned to be Bryson’s office mate while Emmons was on a short assignment at Hughes. Bryson relates the circumstances that led Emmons to ask him to join the faculty at Harvard as an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering in 1963. He offers a short account of departmental and family life and his research and consulting work while at Harvard, and notes that the increasingly contentious atmosphere surrounding the Vietnam War was one of the factors that led him to accept an invitation to join the Stanford engineering faculty in 1968.
Bryson describes some of the opportunities and challenges of his new role as the chair of the Department of Applied Mechanics, and later the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He comments on his approach to teaching engineering and working with graduate students, recalls his work on Waves in Fluids and some of the other films in the Fluid Mechanics Films series, and relates stories about the anti-Vietnam War protests on campus.
He concludes the interview with comments on the Gravity Probe B project and reflections on recent directions in biomechanical engineering and flight mechanics.

In this oral history, Jean (Fetter) Chu, who served as Dean of Undergraduate Admissions at Stanford for seven years, discusses the relationship between admissions and athletics at the university.
Chu begins with an account of her own athletic career at Oxford University, playing “attack” on the varsity “net ball” team--a basketball forward in American English. She says it was a highlight of her time at Oxford, where women’s sports were not regarded as highly as men’s teams. She describes the distinction between men’s and women’s sports by noting that male athletes were awarded a Blue letter, while women got a half-letter or Half Blue.
At Stanford, Chu found herself in the athletics spotlight when she was named Dean of Undergraduate Admissions in 1984. Athletics coaches and alumni were extremely concerned that having a woman--and a British woman who had a PhD in physics--in the admissions role would negatively affect the athletic program. Chu recalls that one faculty member even felt the need to take her aside to explain--unnecessarily, of course--what the Pac-10 was.
Chu describes her great respect for the athletic coaches at Stanford as well as her determination to admit only students she was confident would succeed academically. That resolve, she says, led her to refuse admission to prized basketball recruit, Chris Munk. Her decision led directly to the angry resignation of basketball coach, Thomas Davis. She recalls the wave of criticism she received and reviews the factors she weighed when making her decision.
Chu turns from the Munk incident to describe her strong belief in the need to maintain the integrity of the admissions process. She provides a sense of the constant observation she was under from coaches, high school counselors, faculty, and alumni; the unfounded rumors that tended to swirl around the admissions process at Stanford; and both the opposition and support she experienced in the role. She describes the important role that the admissions liaisons to the Department of Athletics played in screening potential recruits and addresses concerns that these staff members might become too closely personally with coaches they befriended. The emotional agony of the admissions decision-making process, she confesses, and the changes it was making in her personal outlook, were important factors in her decision to resign the position.
She credits faculty athletic representatives with helping her navigate the occasionally stormy seas and discusses her service on a committee that selected football coach Denny Green. Chu concludes with some kudos for the many star athletes who spent time at Stanford and shares some remarks and anecdotes related to the Stanford Band.

In this oral history, Jean (Fetter) Chu, who served as Dean of Undergraduate Admissions at Stanford for seven years, discusses the relationship between admissions and athletics at the university.
Chu begins with an account of her own athletic career at Oxford University, playing “attack” on the varsity “net ball” team--a basketball forward in American English. She says it was a highlight of her time at Oxford, where women’s sports were not regarded as highly as men’s teams. She describes the distinction between men’s and women’s sports by noting that male athletes were awarded a Blue letter, while women got a half-letter or Half Blue.
At Stanford, Chu found herself in the athletics spotlight when she was named Dean of Undergraduate Admissions in 1984. Athletics coaches and alumni were extremely concerned that having a woman--and a British woman who had a PhD in physics--in the admissions role would negatively affect the athletic program. Chu recalls that one faculty member even felt the need to take her aside to explain--unnecessarily, of course--what the Pac-10 was.
Chu describes her great respect for the athletic coaches at Stanford as well as her determination to admit only students she was confident would succeed academically. That resolve, she says, led her to refuse admission to prized basketball recruit, Chris Munk. Her decision led directly to the angry resignation of basketball coach, Thomas Davis. She recalls the wave of criticism she received and reviews the factors she weighed when making her decision.
Chu turns from the Munk incident to describe her strong belief in the need to maintain the integrity of the admissions process. She provides a sense of the constant observation she was under from coaches, high school counselors, faculty, and alumni; the unfounded rumors that tended to swirl around the admissions process at Stanford; and both the opposition and support she experienced in the role. She describes the important role that the admissions liaisons to the Department of Athletics played in screening potential recruits and addresses concerns that these staff members might become too closely personally with coaches they befriended. The emotional agony of the admissions decision-making process, she confesses, and the changes it was making in her personal outlook, were important factors in her decision to resign the position.
She credits faculty athletic representatives with helping her navigate the occasionally stormy seas and discusses her service on a committee that selected football coach Denny Green. Chu concludes with some kudos for the many star athletes who spent time at Stanford and shares some remarks and anecdotes related to the Stanford Band.

In this oral history, Jean H. Chu (formerly Jean H. Fetter) discusses her twenty-five-year career at Stanford University where she served as Dean of Undergraduate Admissions, as assistant to two university presidents (Richard W. Lyman and Gerhard Casper), and in other administrative capacities.
Chu begins with an account of her childhood in Wales during World War II, when German bombings demolished nearby Swansea and frequently sent her scrambling for shelter. Raised by a great-aunt and great-uncle, she recalls how her youthful interest in mathematics and physics was fostered at a rigorous all-women’s high school. Her excellence there helped gain admission to Oxford University’s all-women’s college, St. Hugh’s. In vivid detail, Chu recounts her experiences as one of six women, compared to 120 men, studying physics at Oxford. She was awarded a first in physics, among the best in her class.
During her Oxford years, she met and married American Alexander (Sandy) Fetter (now Professor Emeritus of Physics at Stanford), and she discusses accompanying him to successive faculty appointments at Harvard, Berkeley, and finally Stanford. Describing life as a faculty wife and mother of small children, she recalls a brief job with William Shockley that led to a teaching position and then assistant professorship in physics at San Jose State.
Turning to her employment at Stanford, Chu discusses her work with David Halliburton of the English Department on two grant-funded projects that she used to promote recruitment of women in sciences. She credits the broad perspective of Stanford that she gained during that project with helping her win appointment as assistant to Stanford President Richard W. Lyman. She recalls a heavy workload filtering the barrage of mail and in-person complaints brought to the president. Described as a “cog between big wheels,” she says, she learned about how the university operated at the highest level.
Chu offers a brief account of her time as Associate Dean of Graduate Studies and Research under Jerry Lieberman where she oversaw the recruitment of women and minorities into graduate programs at Stanford and worked to develop grievance procedures for graduate students.
Much of the oral history involves the many challenges she faced as Dean of Admissions. She describes the conflict she confronted between those who supported recruiting “well-rounded” students and others who favored “angular” students (“nerds” with extraordinary talents). Chu tells how she enabled the Department of Mathematics and later the departments of Music, Art, Drama, and Dance to review outstanding applicants in their fields, using the model created for athletes. She explains other policies she initiated and provides a detailed description of the review process, recounting some unusual cases as well as special efforts to recruit minorities and women.
Chu outlines her service on the search committee that selected Gerhard Casper to be the new university president and the circumstances that led her to accept the role as his assistant. She contrasts her experiences as assistant to Lyman and Casper.
Concluding her remarks, Chu recalls her experiences with her second husband, Steven Chu, when he received the Nobel Prize in physics.

In this oral history, Jean H. Chu (formerly Jean H. Fetter) discusses her twenty-five-year career at Stanford University where she served as Dean of Undergraduate Admissions, as assistant to two university presidents (Richard W. Lyman and Gerhard Casper), and in other administrative capacities.
Chu begins with an account of her childhood in Wales during World War II, when German bombings demolished nearby Swansea and frequently sent her scrambling for shelter. Raised by a great-aunt and great-uncle, she recalls how her youthful interest in mathematics and physics was fostered at a rigorous all-women’s high school. Her excellence there helped gain admission to Oxford University’s all-women’s college, St. Hugh’s. In vivid detail, Chu recounts her experiences as one of six women, compared to 120 men, studying physics at Oxford. She was awarded a first in physics, among the best in her class.
During her Oxford years, she met and married American Alexander (Sandy) Fetter (now Professor Emeritus of Physics at Stanford), and she discusses accompanying him to successive faculty appointments at Harvard, Berkeley, and finally Stanford. Describing life as a faculty wife and mother of small children, she recalls a brief job with William Shockley that led to a teaching position and then assistant professorship in physics at San Jose State.
Turning to her employment at Stanford, Chu discusses her work with David Halliburton of the English Department on two grant-funded projects that she used to promote recruitment of women in sciences. She credits the broad perspective of Stanford that she gained during that project with helping her win appointment as assistant to Stanford President Richard W. Lyman. She recalls a heavy workload filtering the barrage of mail and in-person complaints brought to the president. Described as a “cog between big wheels,” she says, she learned about how the university operated at the highest level.
Chu offers a brief account of her time as Associate Dean of Graduate Studies and Research under Jerry Lieberman where she oversaw the recruitment of women and minorities into graduate programs at Stanford and worked to develop grievance procedures for graduate students.
Much of the oral history involves the many challenges she faced as Dean of Admissions. She describes the conflict she confronted between those who supported recruiting “well-rounded” students and others who favored “angular” students (“nerds” with extraordinary talents). Chu tells how she enabled the Department of Mathematics and later the departments of Music, Art, Drama, and Dance to review outstanding applicants in their fields, using the model created for athletes. She explains other policies she initiated and provides a detailed description of the review process, recounting some unusual cases as well as special efforts to recruit minorities and women.
Chu outlines her service on the search committee that selected Gerhard Casper to be the new university president and the circumstances that led her to accept the role as his assistant. She contrasts her experiences as assistant to Lyman and Casper.
Concluding her remarks, Chu recalls her experiences with her second husband, Steven Chu, when he received the Nobel Prize in physics.

Eve V. Clark, Richard W. Lyman Professor of Humanities and an internationally known linguist, reviews her life journey from the United Kingdom to the United States.
Clark begins by discussing her childhood in Britain, emphasizing her relationship with her sister, and her early education. Clark recounts traveling with her family, reflecting particularly on her time in France and the impact that learning the French language at a young age has had on her. She then describes her time at the University of Edinburgh and her time studying abroad in Aux-en-Provence and Barcelona. Clark then discusses how her interest in linguistics developed, accrediting the year-long phonetics course she had previously completed and her decision to attend the Linguistics Institute at the University of California Los Angeles.
Clark describes meeting her husband, Herb, completing her PhD, and coming to Stanford. Clark comments on her experience as an academic couple and on how she managed having a career and a family. Clark talks extensively about her research in language acquisition, describing past studies she has conducted and textbooks she has produced. She then details her work with undergraduates, the classes she has taught, and her time serving on multiple advisory boards. Clark then describes in more detail her time at Stanford, recounting how the Linguistics Department has evolved, the Loma Prieta earthquake, student discontent in the 1970s, the committees she had served on, and how being a woman has impacted her career, and her consciousness of the feminist movement.
The interview concludes with Clark commenting on how Stanford can continue to cultivate a more hospitable environment for women and by reminiscing on how the students at Stanford, and their motivation and energy, has driven her decision to continue teaching at the university.

Eve V. Clark, Richard W. Lyman Professor of Humanities and an internationally known linguist, reviews her life journey from the United Kingdom to the United States.
Clark begins by discussing her childhood in Britain, emphasizing her relationship with her sister, and her early education. Clark recounts traveling with her family, reflecting particularly on her time in France and the impact that learning the French language at a young age has had on her. She then describes her time at the University of Edinburgh and her time studying abroad in Aux-en-Provence and Barcelona. Clark then discusses how her interest in linguistics developed, accrediting the year-long phonetics course she had previously completed and her decision to attend the Linguistics Institute at the University of California Los Angeles.
Clark describes meeting her husband, Herb, completing her PhD, and coming to Stanford. Clark comments on her experience as an academic couple and on how she managed having a career and a family. Clark talks extensively about her research in language acquisition, describing past studies she has conducted and textbooks she has produced. She then details her work with undergraduates, the classes she has taught, and her time serving on multiple advisory boards. Clark then describes in more detail her time at Stanford, recounting how the Linguistics Department has evolved, the Loma Prieta earthquake, student discontent in the 1970s, the committees she had served on, and how being a woman has impacted her career, and her consciousness of the feminist movement.
The interview concludes with Clark commenting on how Stanford can continue to cultivate a more hospitable environment for women and by reminiscing on how the students at Stanford, and their motivation and energy, has driven her decision to continue teaching at the university.

Provides an overview of the process and people who support Stanford University Libraries bibliographers and curators to create or acquire content for the digital library, to preserve it in the digital repository, and to make it discoverable in SearchWorks and accessible in a variety of innovative platforms developed right here at Stanford, including Spotlight and Mirador.

Provides an overview of the process and people who support Stanford University Libraries bibliographers and curators to create or acquire content for the digital library, to preserve it in the digital repository, and to make it discoverable in SearchWorks and accessible in a variety of innovative platforms developed right here at Stanford, including Spotlight and Mirador.

In this oral history, Robert H. Dreisbach, Stanford alumnus (AB Chemistry 1937) and Professor of Pharmacology, Emeritus, discusses growing up in Baker, Oregon. He touches on his father’s work on the farm, at a creamery, and as a grocer and his mother’s beekeeping, and he describes Boy Scout meetings and hiking trips with his troop. He discusses his undergraduate days at Stanford from 1933 to 1937, recalling attending dances, the El Capitan Eating Club, and serving as the manager of the Stanford baseball team. He recalls his chemistry and physics professors and describes how a talk at Stanford given by a researcher from the Department of Agriculture awakened his interest in pharmacology and helped to convince him to pursue the subject while in medical school at the University of Chicago.
Dreisbach briefly recounts his experiences during World War II, which included working as an instructor at the Stanford Medical School and military service as a ward officer at Lovell General Hospital in Fort Devens, Massachusetts and at a hospital in the Panama Canal Zone. He describes the Stanford Medical School when it was located in San Francisco and provides his recollections of the rationale behind its move to campus, including Windsor Cutting’s involvement. He recounts the origins and evolution of his work, The Handbook of Poisoning and the way that poison control centers embraced the book.
Dreisbach describes the expansion of the Pharmacology Department after Avram Goldstein arrived from Harvard University to assume its chairmanship and its move to the Stanford campus. He remembers Goldstein as a “go-getter” and relates how he secured space in the basement of the Stanford Museum for a laboratory. Dreisbach explains how concern about smog and air pollution led him to pursue research and writing on environmental issues. An avid hiker, he closes the interview, which was conducted on the eve of his 100th birthday, by offering advice for longevity--keep climbing summits.

In this oral history, Robert H. Dreisbach, Stanford alumnus (AB Chemistry 1937) and Professor of Pharmacology, Emeritus, discusses growing up in Baker, Oregon. He touches on his father’s work on the farm, at a creamery, and as a grocer and his mother’s beekeeping, and he describes Boy Scout meetings and hiking trips with his troop. He discusses his undergraduate days at Stanford from 1933 to 1937, recalling attending dances, the El Capitan Eating Club, and serving as the manager of the Stanford baseball team. He recalls his chemistry and physics professors and describes how a talk at Stanford given by a researcher from the Department of Agriculture awakened his interest in pharmacology and helped to convince him to pursue the subject while in medical school at the University of Chicago.
Dreisbach briefly recounts his experiences during World War II, which included working as an instructor at the Stanford Medical School and military service as a ward officer at Lovell General Hospital in Fort Devens, Massachusetts and at a hospital in the Panama Canal Zone. He describes the Stanford Medical School when it was located in San Francisco and provides his recollections of the rationale behind its move to campus, including Windsor Cutting’s involvement. He recounts the origins and evolution of his work, The Handbook of Poisoning and the way that poison control centers embraced the book.
Dreisbach describes the expansion of the Pharmacology Department after Avram Goldstein arrived from Harvard University to assume its chairmanship and its move to the Stanford campus. He remembers Goldstein as a “go-getter” and relates how he secured space in the basement of the Stanford Museum for a laboratory. Dreisbach explains how concern about smog and air pollution led him to pursue research and writing on environmental issues. An avid hiker, he closes the interview, which was conducted on the eve of his 100th birthday, by offering advice for longevity--keep climbing summits.

Charles Drekmeier is Professor of Political Science, Emeritus at Stanford University. He came to Stanford in 1958 and spent almost forty years teaching at the university during an era of great social and political change. In this interview, Drekmeier discusses his academic training with Talcott Parsons and others, his interests in political theory and social thought, the development of the Stanford Program in Social Thought, and civil rights and anti-Vietnam War activism on the Stanford campus during the 1960s and 1970s.
Drekmeier touches briefly on his hometown of Beloit, Wisconsin where his parents owned a drugstore. He describes his first exposure to college at the University of Chicago where he was admitted to the innovative two-year bachelors degree program conceived by Robert Maynard Hutchins. Drekmeier describes meeting communist political activists there, his struggle to acclimate, and his eventual transfer to the University of Wisconsin. He discusses his induction into the army towards the end of World War II and relates stories from basic training and other postings.
Upon returning to the University of Wisconsin after the war, Drekmeier’s interest in political science and sociology grew. He explains how he took an internship with the State Department to study the European Recovery Program and details his travels through Europe. He relates his decision to pursue a master’s degree in history at Columbia University and describes some of the professors he worked with there, including Henry Steele Commager.
Drekmeier discusses his early academic career, first at the University of Wisconsin where he taught economics and political geography in the Integrated Liberal Studies Program (ILS), and then at Boston University where he taught human relations and political economy before receiving a Fulbright scholarship to study the history of law and politics in India. He relates stories from his time in India and explains how he came to enroll in a graduate program at Harvard where he worked as a research assistant to Talcott Parsons.
Drekmeier describes the circumstances that led him to join the Stanford faculty. He couches the discussion of his teaching experience at Stanford and his reputation as a “liberal” professor in terms of the social and political movements of the time. He describes the twenty-four hour teach-in hosted by the campus Peace in Vietnam committee in 1965 and discusses the ideas and impact of Bruce Franklin, a tenured professor of English who was fired from Stanford for his role in anti-war campus protests.
Drekmeier discusses the development and evolution of a social science honors seminar called Social Thought and Institutions. This long-running program studied a single topic, such as “community,” for an entire academic year. Drekmeier credits his students with sharing fresh ideas that affected his perspective.
Drekmeier explains his first public appearance as a “political figure” during a campus event about the civil rights movement. He recalls the day of John F. Kennedy’s assassination and the emotional address he gave to students that evening, and he describes how he became involved in the Resurrection City program at the request of students who desired to participate in the encampment in Washington DC. He concludes the interview with reflections on Stanford as an institution and the story of the Drekmeier Drugs bowling team.

Charles Drekmeier is Professor of Political Science, Emeritus at Stanford University. He came to Stanford in 1958 and spent almost forty years teaching at the university during an era of great social and political change. In this interview, Drekmeier discusses his academic training with Talcott Parsons and others, his interests in political theory and social thought, the development of the Stanford Program in Social Thought, and civil rights and anti-Vietnam War activism on the Stanford campus during the 1960s and 1970s.
Drekmeier touches briefly on his hometown of Beloit, Wisconsin where his parents owned a drugstore. He describes his first exposure to college at the University of Chicago where he was admitted to the innovative two-year bachelors degree program conceived by Robert Maynard Hutchins. Drekmeier describes meeting communist political activists there, his struggle to acclimate, and his eventual transfer to the University of Wisconsin. He discusses his induction into the army towards the end of World War II and relates stories from basic training and other postings.
Upon returning to the University of Wisconsin after the war, Drekmeier’s interest in political science and sociology grew. He explains how he took an internship with the State Department to study the European Recovery Program and details his travels through Europe. He relates his decision to pursue a master’s degree in history at Columbia University and describes some of the professors he worked with there, including Henry Steele Commager.
Drekmeier discusses his early academic career, first at the University of Wisconsin where he taught economics and political geography in the Integrated Liberal Studies Program (ILS), and then at Boston University where he taught human relations and political economy before receiving a Fulbright scholarship to study the history of law and politics in India. He relates stories from his time in India and explains how he came to enroll in a graduate program at Harvard where he worked as a research assistant to Talcott Parsons.
Drekmeier describes the circumstances that led him to join the Stanford faculty. He couches the discussion of his teaching experience at Stanford and his reputation as a “liberal” professor in terms of the social and political movements of the time. He describes the twenty-four hour teach-in hosted by the campus Peace in Vietnam committee in 1965 and discusses the ideas and impact of Bruce Franklin, a tenured professor of English who was fired from Stanford for his role in anti-war campus protests.
Drekmeier discusses the development and evolution of a social science honors seminar called Social Thought and Institutions. This long-running program studied a single topic, such as “community,” for an entire academic year. Drekmeier credits his students with sharing fresh ideas that affected his perspective.
Drekmeier explains his first public appearance as a “political figure” during a campus event about the civil rights movement. He recalls the day of John F. Kennedy’s assassination and the emotional address he gave to students that evening, and he describes how he became involved in the Resurrection City program at the request of students who desired to participate in the encampment in Washington DC. He concludes the interview with reflections on Stanford as an institution and the story of the Drekmeier Drugs bowling team.

Mark W. Edwards, an emeritus professor in the Department of Classics, spent over two decades serving the Stanford community. Edwards influenced numerous undergraduate and graduate students at Stanford and at other institutions in the United States and Canada. The focus of this two-part interview is the breadth of Edwards’s teaching career and the evolution of his research interests, particularly his work related to Homer.
Edwards’s academic success in classical languages began at his English grammar school during his teenage years. He explains how he chose Latin as his major at Bristol University and how, a few years later, he returned to Bristol to earn a second honors degree in Greek. Edwards pursued a master’s degree soon after, where he worked with Thomas Webster of University College London and began studying Homeric formulae. Both Webster and Homer proved to be strong influences on Edwards’s future career.
After a year in London, Edwards moved to the United States as a Fulbright fellow at Princeton University and then accepted his first teaching position at Brown University. Edwards describes his impressions of mid-century America, the works of literature he covered in his classes, and his experience as a resident chaperone on campus. Edwards also discusses how not getting tenure at Brown prompted him to apply for a teaching position at Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada, where he taught for another seven years. He draws interesting comparisons between the two countries based on his student interactions, and provides more detailed information and examples about his work on Homeric formulae that developed over those fourteen years.
In the second interview, Edwards describes his years at Stanford as a professor, department chair, and researcher. Edwards found many of his former mentors teaching at Stanford when he arrived in 1969. He taught a variety of Classics graduate courses and non-major undergraduate classes. Edwards also served as department chair for seven years. He discusses the highs and lows of the experience and details the two programs he was most proud of implementing: the Stanford in Greece program, which subsidized student travel in Greece, and the Webster Fund, named in honor of his mentor Thomas Webster, which supported the exchange of guest lecturers between Stanford and University College London.
Over the course of thirty plus years teaching Homer’s work, Edwards widened his research to include studying the poet’s type scenes and story patterns. He personally appreciated those moments when Homer broke from the pattern and revealed more of himself. To share this expertise, Edwards wrote a well-received reader for the general public called Homer: Poet of the Iliad. After retiring early from Stanford, Edwards accepted an appointment at the University of California, Santa Cruz to teach Homer to undergraduates in Greek.
Edwards concludes his interview with thoughts about how classics remains relevant in modern society. He points to his retirement reading group that recently studied the Odyssey. Through vicarious experience, Edwards feels the retirees gained knowledge from studying the text and relating it to the experiences they had during and after World War II. Edwards remarks that he takes great pleasure in these new interactions with classical texts he has studied his entire career.

Mark W. Edwards, an emeritus professor in the Department of Classics, spent over two decades serving the Stanford community. Edwards influenced numerous undergraduate and graduate students at Stanford and at other institutions in the United States and Canada. The focus of this two-part interview is the breadth of Edwards’s teaching career and the evolution of his research interests, particularly his work related to Homer.
Edwards’s academic success in classical languages began at his English grammar school during his teenage years. He explains how he chose Latin as his major at Bristol University and how, a few years later, he returned to Bristol to earn a second honors degree in Greek. Edwards pursued a master’s degree soon after, where he worked with Thomas Webster of University College London and began studying Homeric formulae. Both Webster and Homer proved to be strong influences on Edwards’s future career.
After a year in London, Edwards moved to the United States as a Fulbright fellow at Princeton University and then accepted his first teaching position at Brown University. Edwards describes his impressions of mid-century America, the works of literature he covered in his classes, and his experience as a resident chaperone on campus. Edwards also discusses how not getting tenure at Brown prompted him to apply for a teaching position at Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada, where he taught for another seven years. He draws interesting comparisons between the two countries based on his student interactions, and provides more detailed information and examples about his work on Homeric formulae that developed over those fourteen years.
In the second interview, Edwards describes his years at Stanford as a professor, department chair, and researcher. Edwards found many of his former mentors teaching at Stanford when he arrived in 1969. He taught a variety of Classics graduate courses and non-major undergraduate classes. Edwards also served as department chair for seven years. He discusses the highs and lows of the experience and details the two programs he was most proud of implementing: the Stanford in Greece program, which subsidized student travel in Greece, and the Webster Fund, named in honor of his mentor Thomas Webster, which supported the exchange of guest lecturers between Stanford and University College London.
Over the course of thirty plus years teaching Homer’s work, Edwards widened his research to include studying the poet’s type scenes and story patterns. He personally appreciated those moments when Homer broke from the pattern and revealed more of himself. To share this expertise, Edwards wrote a well-received reader for the general public called Homer: Poet of the Iliad. After retiring early from Stanford, Edwards accepted an appointment at the University of California, Santa Cruz to teach Homer to undergraduates in Greek.
Edwards concludes his interview with thoughts about how classics remains relevant in modern society. He points to his retirement reading group that recently studied the Odyssey. Through vicarious experience, Edwards feels the retirees gained knowledge from studying the text and relating it to the experiences they had during and after World War II. Edwards remarks that he takes great pleasure in these new interactions with classical texts he has studied his entire career.

In this oral history, Stanford alumnus James H. Flippen (MD 1945) recounts family stories and the journey that led him to attend medical school at Stanford University. He relates details of student life at the Stanford School of Medicine when it was located in San Francisco and recalls incidents from his residency at Stanford. He briefly describes his fellowship at Boston Children’s Hospital where he learned the replacement transfusion technique for treating hemolytic anemia of the newborn, which he later taught to physicians on the West Coast. He also provides an account of his service in the United States Navy when he was assigned to a clinic for treating tropical skin diseases located at the Tanforan Race Track in San Bruno, California.
Flippen describes his work as a private practitioner of pediatrics in Palo Alto and his work as a clinical professor in the pediatric cardiology clinic at Stanford. He recounts his role in leasing land from Stanford in cooperation with other physicians in order to build a cluster of medical offices near Stanford hospital known as the Medical Plaza. He describes his work as the regional chairman of the Accident Prevention Committee of the American Academy of Pediatrics and his advocacy of legislation requiring that cars be equipped with seatbelts, that homes have smoke detectors, and that teenagers who drove while intoxicated receive stiff penalties. He concludes the interview by discussing his determination of the cause of a tragic drowning incident, a phenomenon he branded “silent drowning.”

In this oral history, Stanford alumnus James H. Flippen (MD 1945) recounts family stories and the journey that led him to attend medical school at Stanford University. He relates details of student life at the Stanford School of Medicine when it was located in San Francisco and recalls incidents from his residency at Stanford. He briefly describes his fellowship at Boston Children’s Hospital where he learned the replacement transfusion technique for treating hemolytic anemia of the newborn, which he later taught to physicians on the West Coast. He also provides an account of his service in the United States Navy when he was assigned to a clinic for treating tropical skin diseases located at the Tanforan Race Track in San Bruno, California.
Flippen describes his work as a private practitioner of pediatrics in Palo Alto and his work as a clinical professor in the pediatric cardiology clinic at Stanford. He recounts his role in leasing land from Stanford in cooperation with other physicians in order to build a cluster of medical offices near Stanford hospital known as the Medical Plaza. He describes his work as the regional chairman of the Accident Prevention Committee of the American Academy of Pediatrics and his advocacy of legislation requiring that cars be equipped with seatbelts, that homes have smoke detectors, and that teenagers who drove while intoxicated receive stiff penalties. He concludes the interview by discussing his determination of the cause of a tragic drowning incident, a phenomenon he branded “silent drowning.”

56 concepts (objects) form a controlled vocabulary for computer media formats, focused primarily on games. There is no physical compontent to this collection. The images included in this collection are intended to illustrate the concepts.

56 concepts (objects) form a controlled vocabulary for computer media formats, focused primarily on games. There is no physical compontent to this collection. The images included in this collection are intended to illustrate the concepts.

126 concepts (objects) form a controlled vocabulary for computerplatforms, focused primarily on games. There is no physical compontent to this collection. The images included in this collection are intended to illustrate the concepts.

126 concepts (objects) form a controlled vocabulary for computerplatforms, focused primarily on games. There is no physical compontent to this collection. The images included in this collection are intended to illustrate the concepts.

William Gilly is a biology professor at Stanford’s Hopkins Marine Station whose research has contributed to our basic understanding of electrical excitability in nerve and muscle cells in a wide variety of organisms ranging from brittle stars to mammals. In this interview, Gilly discusses the path his science career has taken, including measuring gas diffusion across membranes, patch clamping giant squid neurons, and retracing John Steinbeck and Edward Ricketts’s expedition to the Sea of Cortez. Beyond his research, he explains how he has incorporated exploration and discovery into his courses and science outreach.
Gilly begins the interview with his affinity for Uncle Wiggly, an aged but adventurous rabbit from a series of children’s stories, and describes his own independent forays into the natural surroundings of Allentown, Pennsylvania when he was a child. He explains his family’s technical background and how his interest in ham radio led him to pursue an electrical engineering degree at Princeton.
Gilly details the independent undergraduate research project that landed him in a neurophysiology lab, shifted his focus to biology, and, despite inconclusive results, earned him an award from his engineering department. He describes his acceptance to the PhD program at Washington University in St. Louis and how, when his advisor died suddenly, a network of friends and acquaintances from Yale University, the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, and the University of Washington’s Friday Harbor Laboratories enabled him to complete his research and thesis in physiology and biophysics and to begin a postdoctoral fellowship in Clara Franzini-Armstrong’s lab at the University of Pennsylvania, studying the role of ion channels in electrical signaling in squid axons.
This expertise, Gilly explains, resulted in his appointment at Stanford, working at Hopkins Marine Station where he could collect squid specimens directly from the bay. Citing his experiences both as a scientist and fisherman, he opines on the ways that the Monterey Bay has and has not recovered. After discussing the bureaucratic challenges of achieving tenure, he launches into stories about the classes he has taught, including a technical training course on patch clamping squid neurons, a holistic biology class that involved field research in Baja California Big Sur and the Salinas River, and the Steinbeck Summer Institutes program for primary educators.
A central text to many of these courses is Steinbeck and Ricketts’s Sea of Cortez: A Leisurely Journal of Travel and Research, and Gilly discusses how he and several colleagues organized their own expedition based on Steinbeck and Ricketts’s sea voyage. He details preparations and sponsorship for the trip and mentions how the original expedition’s ship, the Western Flyer, is being restored for outreach and possible future trips.
Gilly talks about his other outreach work, including donating giant squid to primary classrooms for his Squid4Kids program, trying to mount a critter-cam on a squid for National Geographic TV, and serving as a National Geographic Expert on their Lindblad cruises in the Sea of Cortez. He concludes the interview by discussing his current project helping to set up a community-run marine lab in Santa Rosalía, Baja California Sur, Mexico and how it might be used for environmental research and education.

William Gilly is a biology professor at Stanford’s Hopkins Marine Station whose research has contributed to our basic understanding of electrical excitability in nerve and muscle cells in a wide variety of organisms ranging from brittle stars to mammals. In this interview, Gilly discusses the path his science career has taken, including measuring gas diffusion across membranes, patch clamping giant squid neurons, and retracing John Steinbeck and Edward Ricketts’s expedition to the Sea of Cortez. Beyond his research, he explains how he has incorporated exploration and discovery into his courses and science outreach.
Gilly begins the interview with his affinity for Uncle Wiggly, an aged but adventurous rabbit from a series of children’s stories, and describes his own independent forays into the natural surroundings of Allentown, Pennsylvania when he was a child. He explains his family’s technical background and how his interest in ham radio led him to pursue an electrical engineering degree at Princeton.
Gilly details the independent undergraduate research project that landed him in a neurophysiology lab, shifted his focus to biology, and, despite inconclusive results, earned him an award from his engineering department. He describes his acceptance to the PhD program at Washington University in St. Louis and how, when his advisor died suddenly, a network of friends and acquaintances from Yale University, the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, and the University of Washington’s Friday Harbor Laboratories enabled him to complete his research and thesis in physiology and biophysics and to begin a postdoctoral fellowship in Clara Franzini-Armstrong’s lab at the University of Pennsylvania, studying the role of ion channels in electrical signaling in squid axons.
This expertise, Gilly explains, resulted in his appointment at Stanford, working at Hopkins Marine Station where he could collect squid specimens directly from the bay. Citing his experiences both as a scientist and fisherman, he opines on the ways that the Monterey Bay has and has not recovered. After discussing the bureaucratic challenges of achieving tenure, he launches into stories about the classes he has taught, including a technical training course on patch clamping squid neurons, a holistic biology class that involved field research in Baja California Big Sur and the Salinas River, and the Steinbeck Summer Institutes program for primary educators.
A central text to many of these courses is Steinbeck and Ricketts’s Sea of Cortez: A Leisurely Journal of Travel and Research, and Gilly discusses how he and several colleagues organized their own expedition based on Steinbeck and Ricketts’s sea voyage. He details preparations and sponsorship for the trip and mentions how the original expedition’s ship, the Western Flyer, is being restored for outreach and possible future trips.
Gilly talks about his other outreach work, including donating giant squid to primary classrooms for his Squid4Kids program, trying to mount a critter-cam on a squid for National Geographic TV, and serving as a National Geographic Expert on their Lindblad cruises in the Sea of Cortez. He concludes the interview by discussing his current project helping to set up a community-run marine lab in Santa Rosalía, Baja California Sur, Mexico and how it might be used for environmental research and education.

Dick Gould, the John L. Hinds Director of Tennis at Stanford University, the men’s tennis coach for thirty-eight years, and a Stanford alum, discusses his student days at Stanford, highlights from his years as a tennis coach, and the evolution of the Stanford tennis program and the Department of Athletics, Physical Education, and Recreation.
Gould begins his interview by describing the extensive connections between Stanford University and five generations of his family. He speaks about his early life in Ventura, California, and discusses Stanford student life in the 1950s, playing on the men’s tennis team, and his decision to pursue a master’s degree in education and become a teacher and tennis coach. He describes his first teaching and coaching position at Mountain View High School and working as the head tennis coach at Foothill Junior College, where his teams won two state team championships.
Hired as the Stanford men’s tennis coach in 1966, Gould explains the factors that led him to believe that the men’s tennis team could attract top quality players and win national championships. He describes the steps he took to build intercollegiate championship tennis teams at Stanford, emphasizing the primary role of recruiting and the methods he used to attract the top tennis players in the country to Stanford, successes that led to Stanford’s first NCAA Men’s Tennis Championship in 1973. Gould reflects on factors common to the seventeen NCAA championship teams he coached and memorable performances by his players and teams. He also talks about his transition in 2004 from the men’s head tennis coach to the John L. Hinds Director of Tennis.
Reflecting on his style of coaching, Gould talks about the challenges of coaching high-level players, the interplay between professional and collegiate tennis, and the values he tried to impart to his players.
Women’s involvement in collegiate athletics changed substantially during Gould’s lifetime, and he discusses the significant impact Title IX had on Stanford’s athletics programs in general and the Stanford tennis program specifically, ultimately resulting in the merger of the men’s and women’s tennis programs. Gould talks about hiring Anne Hill (who later became Gould’s wife) as the women’s tennis coach, and her success in building championship women’s tennis teams at Stanford.
Describing Stanford’s athletic programs more generally, Gould offers his opinion on how the successes of the men’s and women’s tennis teams in the 1970s, coupled with the football team’s 1971 and 1972 Rose Bowl victories, helped launch the “decades of excellence” of Stanford athletics that have continued up to this day. He discusses the contributions of Stanford coaches in other sports and offers his impressions of the various athletic directors with whom he worked.
Turning to the financial and entrepreneurial aspects of athletics at Stanford, Gould describes his methods of fundraising for the tennis program and some of the sports-related innovations he pioneered, including personal seat licensing and high tech scoreboards. Gould also talks about the tennis facilities at Stanford, describing their evolution from his student days to the construction of the Taube Family Tennis Center.
Gould concludes the interview by commenting on some of the current problems facing college athletics, the most significant changes in Stanford athletics since he joined as coach in 1966, and the contributions for which he would most like to be remembered.

Dick Gould, the John L. Hinds Director of Tennis at Stanford University, the men’s tennis coach for thirty-eight years, and a Stanford alum, discusses his student days at Stanford, highlights from his years as a tennis coach, and the evolution of the Stanford tennis program and the Department of Athletics, Physical Education, and Recreation.
Gould begins his interview by describing the extensive connections between Stanford University and five generations of his family. He speaks about his early life in Ventura, California, and discusses Stanford student life in the 1950s, playing on the men’s tennis team, and his decision to pursue a master’s degree in education and become a teacher and tennis coach. He describes his first teaching and coaching position at Mountain View High School and working as the head tennis coach at Foothill Junior College, where his teams won two state team championships.
Hired as the Stanford men’s tennis coach in 1966, Gould explains the factors that led him to believe that the men’s tennis team could attract top quality players and win national championships. He describes the steps he took to build intercollegiate championship tennis teams at Stanford, emphasizing the primary role of recruiting and the methods he used to attract the top tennis players in the country to Stanford, successes that led to Stanford’s first NCAA Men’s Tennis Championship in 1973. Gould reflects on factors common to the seventeen NCAA championship teams he coached and memorable performances by his players and teams. He also talks about his transition in 2004 from the men’s head tennis coach to the John L. Hinds Director of Tennis.
Reflecting on his style of coaching, Gould talks about the challenges of coaching high-level players, the interplay between professional and collegiate tennis, and the values he tried to impart to his players.
Women’s involvement in collegiate athletics changed substantially during Gould’s lifetime, and he discusses the significant impact Title IX had on Stanford’s athletics programs in general and the Stanford tennis program specifically, ultimately resulting in the merger of the men’s and women’s tennis programs. Gould talks about hiring Anne Hill (who later became Gould’s wife) as the women’s tennis coach, and her success in building championship women’s tennis teams at Stanford.
Describing Stanford’s athletic programs more generally, Gould offers his opinion on how the successes of the men’s and women’s tennis teams in the 1970s, coupled with the football team’s 1971 and 1972 Rose Bowl victories, helped launch the “decades of excellence” of Stanford athletics that have continued up to this day. He discusses the contributions of Stanford coaches in other sports and offers his impressions of the various athletic directors with whom he worked.
Turning to the financial and entrepreneurial aspects of athletics at Stanford, Gould describes his methods of fundraising for the tennis program and some of the sports-related innovations he pioneered, including personal seat licensing and high tech scoreboards. Gould also talks about the tennis facilities at Stanford, describing their evolution from his student days to the construction of the Taube Family Tennis Center.
Gould concludes the interview by commenting on some of the current problems facing college athletics, the most significant changes in Stanford athletics since he joined as coach in 1966, and the contributions for which he would most like to be remembered.

In this oral history, Mark C. Lawrence, Chief Engineer at Stanford’s radio station KZSU for over fifty years, describes growing up in Gridley, California, his physician father’s purchase of a farm, his experience working with farm machinery, and how that experience led to a lifetime of building things with his hands and to an interest in radio. He recalls how that interest led him to volunteer at KZSU when he arrived at Stanford as a freshman in 1963 and eventually to work as its Chief Engineer to this day.
Lawrence recounts the history of KZSU, its gradual expansion, the development of its physical facilities, and its broadening areas of interest. He discusses how the focus of the Department of Electrical Engineering shifted from radio electronics to computing and the subsequent impact on the station. He recalls his employment at the Carnegie Institution of Washington Department of Plant Biology on the Stanford campus after his graduation, taking the first two undergraduate computer science courses in the 1960s, and working eventually in the Computer Center from 1972 to 2004 when he was laid off as a consequence of reorganization and the university’s move away from its homegrown mainframe computing system.
Along the way Lawrence describes Stanford’s steam tunnels through which the radio station’s transmission lines ran, the campus telephone system, the implementation of ASSU special assessment fees that he helped create, and the experience of broadcasting live via KZSU the speeches given by public figures, including Mikhail Gorbachev, Barack Obama, Al Gore and the Dalai Lama, on Stanford campus.

In this oral history, Mark C. Lawrence, Chief Engineer at Stanford’s radio station KZSU for over fifty years, describes growing up in Gridley, California, his physician father’s purchase of a farm, his experience working with farm machinery, and how that experience led to a lifetime of building things with his hands and to an interest in radio. He recalls how that interest led him to volunteer at KZSU when he arrived at Stanford as a freshman in 1963 and eventually to work as its Chief Engineer to this day.
Lawrence recounts the history of KZSU, its gradual expansion, the development of its physical facilities, and its broadening areas of interest. He discusses how the focus of the Department of Electrical Engineering shifted from radio electronics to computing and the subsequent impact on the station. He recalls his employment at the Carnegie Institution of Washington Department of Plant Biology on the Stanford campus after his graduation, taking the first two undergraduate computer science courses in the 1960s, and working eventually in the Computer Center from 1972 to 2004 when he was laid off as a consequence of reorganization and the university’s move away from its homegrown mainframe computing system.
Along the way Lawrence describes Stanford’s steam tunnels through which the radio station’s transmission lines ran, the campus telephone system, the implementation of ASSU special assessment fees that he helped create, and the experience of broadcasting live via KZSU the speeches given by public figures, including Mikhail Gorbachev, Barack Obama, Al Gore and the Dalai Lama, on Stanford campus.